Tomato Basil Loaf ~ Step by Step Pictures

For the final week of BM#46, I took up to do Tame the Yeast. This is a theme that got introduced couple of months back, in pursuit of taming the yeast. Though I bake Garlic Bread, Pizzas and other stuffed breads, the plain loaf or the Sandwich bread always eluded me. So the idea behind this theme is basically getting a simple, tried and foolproof breads, suggested by the BM Bakers.

So for each month, we have two of them suggesting some bread recipe that is already tried by the suggesting members. For this month, I had Veena and Pradnya suggesting two simple breads. For lack of time, I was able to make only Veena’s Tomato Basil Loaf. She had adapted this recipe from Italian cookbook by Tarla dalal. The tomato used in this loaf is supposed to be sun dried tomatoes. However I dried it in oven. Will be posting it separately.

Though I plan I should bake this ahead, I ended up doing it only on
Sunday. The loaf is supposed to have first rise and then mix in all the
other ingredients before the second rise. However as expected I
completely forgot and mixed in everything in the beginning itself. Only
after mixing in I realized. But then it was too late. Finally the bread
rose so well and came out very delicious. I had to bake it for a longer
time. I made two different combos with this bread, which will be coming
up in the next two days.

Knead well for about 5 to 7 minutes to make it into a soft pliable dough. Oil the bowl and keep it covered in a warm place and let it double for nearly 1 hr.

Now punch down the dough and knead again.

On the board, roll out and then roll in to a tight log. Shape it into a loaf.

Prepare a baking tray, grease it with olive oil.

Place the shaped loaf on a prepared tray, cover it loosely and let it rise again for 30-40 minutes.

At the end of 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 185 C

Brush with milk and bake it at 185C for 20 minutes or till done. Mine took about 40 mins, turned it upside down and baked it for 5 mins.

Let it cool and slice it and enjoy!

Notes:

The suggested recipe used equal parts of wheat flour and all purpose flour.

The dough has a first rise and then all the ingredients are added. However I added everything in the beginning itself by not seeing it. It actually worked out well. You can increase the salt by a pinch.

Use 1& 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast instead of instant yeast instead, but you should proof the yeast before kneading it to the dough.